2

The Iron Works By Bill Schwarz, President

Hi All! Sorry I didn't write an NL article last

month. Some of it was lazy and the rest was

a lot of us were in Virginia Beach having a

blast. It was very good to see all of you who

attended. The show was at a beautiful venue

and was a decent show. I was a bit

disappointed at the show turnout though.

The Tidewater guys always put on a great

show as they did here. If you can make one

down there in the future, please do! That’s

one of the reasons we have region 2

conventions so we can all get together at on

venue and enjoy our hobby! Anyway, well

done Tidewater. Looking forward to doing it

again!

Next up is ‘skeetercon. It is on-track on my

end and the contest end is well In-hand. I'm

hoping for 100 tables again but we will see.

With gas tax and tolls forever rising, I can

honestly see why Joe Average can't or won't

make the up to the PAL! MosquitoCon 26

boys! That’s a long time we have been doing

this and do it well you all do! Great Job!

Ok, Just a few more things then you can

move on to Vin's contribution! #1 is I have

gotten a sizeable amount of donations

(modelwise) from various sources over the

past several months. That coupled in with

the leftovers from IHobby and this year’s

MosquitoCon we have a sizeable donation for

the vet services we give to. I am going to ask

the members if they can to contribute a few

bucks for shipping costs. The club will pick

up the rest. Any donation for this cause as

you all know is greatly

appreciated by the vets

that have served and are

in need now. Give from

the heart!

Second, Devin is still

looking for a new NL

editor. If one of you has

the drive and the

experience, PLEASE step

up. Devin has done a

great job and has given a

lot of himself to make

sure things are done

right. See Devin if you are

even a bit interested. If

not, I will be eventually

closing the website due to

lack of participation! So if

you can, step up as Devin

and others have done.

The club needs you! Great

Job Devin! Bravo-Zulu to

you!

Finally: Reminder,

Reminder, Reminder,

Reminder!

"PAAAAAAAAAAAAAY

YOOOOOOOUR

DUUUUUUUUUUUUU

UES"!!! If not, it's the

deadbeat diary for you :)

That’s it for now, Have a

Next

Meeting:

Friday,

November

11th

Upcoming

Events:

November

Finish

What

Someone

Else

Started

November

19th

Marauder-

Con. Harve

de Grace,

MD

December

Annual

Christmas

Party and

Chrysler

Night

January

Out of the

Box Night

3

great day, and don't forget Maraudercon in

Havre De Grace, Maryland, November 19th

2016.

~”Big Bill”

From the Vice President’s Desk By Vince D'Alessio

Bill, Vince and myself attended the Region 2

show held in the Virginia Military Aviation

Museum. While the amount of models was on

the light side, the aircraft this Museum has

is very nice!

The W.W. I airshow was great also! If you

ever get chance, I highly recommend the

visit! Congrats to our club members that

took home awards in the contest!

~ Joe Smith

From the Vice President’s Desk By Vince D'Alessio

My fellow modelers, the November meeting

is here and the Presidential election is only a

few days away. Please remember to vote.

Winter will soon be here and model building

should shift into overdrive. I'm currently

working on a Panzer 4 Ausf E, Dragon Kit,

having completed the C and the D, the E is

an up armored version of the previous

variants. The E has the same main gun same

engine and same suspension. I'm thinking

of painting it German Gray. I'm also building

a P-47 Bubble Top, the Tamiya kit. This

build has been a very slow process because of

all the detail on the fuselage; I just hope it's

done by December. Also there are many

various Submarines in different stages no

completion dates on any of them.

Also underway is an Indy 500 car,

Monogram kit number 9. It’s really just in

the planning stage. I'm getting resin and

photo-etch parts from American Racing

Miniatures in Baltimore they are still

working on suspension parts which should be

ready in a couple of weeks. I think this

should keep me busy for a while. Can't wait

for Christmas and the New Year, Yea right.

Stay healthy and stay modeling.

~Vince

THE JUDGES TABLE By Jon Da Silva

We find ourselves at the end of another year.

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Halloween,

however it was spent. One is never too old to

dress up and go out to a party. Now as we

look towards the Holiday season and the

"winter build" time of the year, may you all

finish those projects you just couldn't find

the time or motivation to during the past

4

year. I hope to finish my HMS Tiger, Graf

Spee and Saratoga before MosquitoCon.

Realistically it'll only be the Tiger or Graf

Spee, but one can dream. Speaking of

models, don't forget that November is the

group build kit swap night. Those that

swapped kits should bring them in to be

judged by Bruce Wilson. I am working on

Art's Mosquito and it's actually not that bad!

We have our custom Lindberg car group

build coming up, so make sure those are

finished by the December meeting. We might

actually need another table since December

is model of the year as well. Some final

thoughts. If you'd like to sponsor a night for

next year, let me know. We have Out of the

Box in January, Nostalgia in March, and I

believe I'll do Sci-Fi in September again. I'm

fairly confident October will be Russian

night and then MosquitoCon is the Cold

War. Let's see what other creative themes we

can come up with! Additionally, I know I

may not be the most seasoned model builder

in the club, but I am curious if anyone is

interested in a tutorial for how I do my water

for ships? My method works at any scale and

really does not involve much acrylic gel like

many other methods do. If anyone’s

interested, I may do a write up for the

December or January issue as I'll be creating

a base for my Graf Spee.

~Jon

The Contact’s View By Mike Pavlo, VP

A big thank you to Bill for setting up last

month’s end of summer party for meeting

night. The giant subs were terrific and all

the food was great.

5

I was able to attend ArmorCon up in

Danbury again this year. I’m always amazed

at the workmanship on the armor pieces and

dioramas that are on display. Several

entries really caught my attention and I

went back to them over and over. There was

a good turnout of vendors also, with some

interesting new products and hard to find

kits and supplies. I was looking for a

particular hard to find kit and I found it on

two different vendor tables, so that was a

plus. The same venue will play host to the

2017 AMPS show, several weeks after

MosquitoCon.

I hope everyone is enjoying the cooler

autumn weather, and I look forward to

seeing everyone at the meeting.

Best Wishes,

~Mike

It’s a Peri What?

Building the Westland Pterodactyl By Mike Terre

It’s a Peri what?

Glad you asked grasshopper. It's a

Westland Pterodactyl, an early flying wing

aircraft developed by Westland Aircraft of

Great Britain. First flying in 1926, it was

the first in a long series of Pterodactyl

aircraft, the last being a Pterodactyl V, a two

seat fighter prototype whose first flight was

in 1934.

6

The aircraft maintained directional control

through the use of wing tip "Tiperons" and

mid wing split flaps. According to Derek

James's book Westland Aircraft since 1915

all of the Pterodactyl series of aircraft were

robust and easy to fly. The British test pilot,

Harald Penrose, was especially fond of them.

This is the Airframe 1/72 scale Vacuform

kit of the Pterodactyl Mk.1a. I chose however

to modify the model into the Mk.1c version

as it had a unique tandem landing gear.

Please see the picture further in the article

on all the landing gear configurations.

The Airframe kit dates from about 1974

and was made by John Tarvin of British

Columbia Canada. Airframe kits used male

molds, meaning all the detail was on the

inside of the vacuformed part. As such very

thin plastic had to be used so that the detail

on the male mold would be pushed out to the

exterior of the molded part. This meant

extreme care had to be taken when sanding

and gluing the kit parts.

I first started out by cutting the parts out of

their carrier sheet, leaving a 1/16th inch

excess around the individual parts. This

excess is used as a guide when sanding to

insure uniformity and evenness. This was

extremely important due to the thinness of

the plastic. In one of the pictures you can

see how close I came to sanding through the

mid wing area.

Once sanding was complete I began

assembly of the airframe. I had to add some

stiffeners to the wing to give it strength and

proper shape. A basic interior was also added

to the fuselage, sidewall structure being

made from Evergreen strip stock. I also

added some scrap plastic to the bottom of the

fuselage in order to strengthen it for the

attachment of the landing gear assembly.

I wanted to show the unusual "Tiperons" so

these were cut from the wing, with new

strakes fabricated. Small holes were drilled

in the "Tiperons", through the strakes and

into the wing so that thin copper wire could

be used to attach them during final

assembly. These parts were "handed" so they

had to be marked accordingly, UL meaning

Upper Left, LR meaning Lower Right, I

think you get the picture.

The Mk.1c landing gear was constructed

from Evergreen strip stock with the struts

made from Contrail strut stock. The wheels

came from the spares box. Special care had

to be taken in attaching the landing gear to

the exact center of the fuselage. If this

measurement was off all the associated wing

7

struts would be misaligned. The main

landing gear struts were drilled and fine

copper wire installed to give strength to the

attach area.

The model was then painted Tamiya AS-12

Bare Metal Silver, followed by Tamiya TS-13

Gloss. Decals, roundels and serial numbers,

came from a Pegasus sheet. A note about the

markings. The Pterodactyl series of aircraft

always had a stylized Pterodactyl on their

nose and this would pose a problem.

Naturally there's no Pterodactyl decals

available and my hand painting skills are

nonexistent. What the devil am I going to do?

Rummaging through my decal box for the

hundredth time inspiration hit me. I had

these old automotive flame decals that are

used on hot rods, God knows where they

came from. By careful cutting of certain

portions of the flames two Pterodactyl

outlines were made which came damn close

to the original aircraft markings. This proves

an old modeling adage, NEVER THOW

ANYTHING OUT! Once the decals were on

the model was over coated with Tamiya TS-

79 Semigloss.

Assembly of the major pieces was now

started. The landing gear assembly was

attached to the fuselage using the copper

wire method discussed earlier. Once the gear

was secured the wing strut work was

attached. The struts were made from

Contrail strut stock and tacked in place with

white glue. Using white glue allows easier

positioning and if a mistake is made the

parts can easily pulled apart. Once the strut

work was completed and properly aligned

super glue was flowed into the joints to

permanently secure them. The "Tiperons"

were then attached and positioned to the

wings using super glue and copper wire.

The engine, a five cylinder air cooled 70 HP

Armstrong Siddeley Genet radial came from

AeroClub as did the propeller. (Don't know

what I'm going to do when my AeroClub

white metal stash runs out!) The engine was

painted Tamiya XF-56 Metallic Gray with a

XF-65 Field Gray crankcase. The engine

exhausts were particular to the Pterodactyl

aircraft and were made from thin lead wire

with a black pastel wash for color. The

propeller was given a wooden finish by

painting it first with Tamiya XF-15 Flesh,

then streaking it with Tamiya XF-9 Hull Red

followed by Micro Gloss.

A pilots seat was found in the scrap box

with masking tape used for the seat belts.

The control stick and rudder bar (don't know

what else to call it as the Pterodactyl had no

rudder!) was made from Evergreen rod stock,

8

the engine controls were made from very

thin copper wire. The instrument panel

markings came from my scrap box. The

windshields were made from acetate clear

stock with Tamiya XF-16 Flat Aluminum

used for the frames.

Final weathering was done using a mixture

of black and gray pastels and Faber-Castell

artist pencils.

This little jewel took me about six weeks to

build and was a challenge to say the least.

The thinness of the plastic and the care you

need in working with it was really

something. In fact after building this I got a

real bad case of "Modelers Block"! Just didn't

want to build anything. However I got over

it, see last month’s build of the old

Pyro/Lindberg Civil War Blockade Runner.

Now that was fun! Currently beating my

head against the wall in building the old

Frog kit of the Vickers Vimy which is

another story!

Hope you've enjoyed the article. Now get

down to your bench and do something

productive like build a model!

~Mike

9

From the Eagle’s Nest

Region 2 Show & the Biplanes & Triplanes Airshow By Mike Dobrzelecki

While the Region 2 model turn-out was

pretty low, several chapter members brought

home trophies and medals for their models –

Congrats to all.

The real draw for me, and others, though,

was the Biplanes and Triplanes Airshow,

with a close 2nd being the museum’s

collection of warbirds and vintage civil

aicraft. Show performers included everything

from the dawn of flight through World War I

and just beyond. Early flight was

represented by two aircraft, the first being a

Curtiss “D” Pusher, like the one that made

the first launch of an aircraft from a ship by

Eugene Ely from the U.S.S Birmingham, just

off the coast of Virginia, and a Bleriot

monoplane. WWI combatants included

everything from a Fokker E.III Eindekker,

Albatros D.V, a Halberstadt 2-seater, a

Nieuport 24, Sopwith 1 ½ Strutter, a Fokker

Dr.1 Triplane, two Fokker D.VII’s, a late-war

Fokker D.VIII (my personal fave) and post

WWI Fokker C.1 (basically a two seat Fokker

DVII). While all of these aircraft are

replicas, and most do not have the original

engines, it was great to see hear them start-

up and see them fly. If you want original

engines and WWI aircraft I strongly suggest

you check out the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome

in upstate New York. There you can hear

the real “buzz and blip” of vintage WWI

engines – and there’s nothing like it. The

show only lasted from 1-3pm, which was a

good thing, since it was hot and humid down

there. If you got overheated, though, all you

had to was duck into the museum’s air-

conditioning. Everything was very close and

accessible, unlike some airshows, where the

action is very far away from the crowd.

That’s my kind of airshow.

The museum’s collection include some great

examples of original pre-WWII and WWII

warbirds, too, including a Hawker

Hurricane, a Bf-109G6, a PBY-5 Catalina, a

Boeing P-26 Peashooter, a Focke Wulf FW-

190D-9, a host of Russian Polikarpovs (Po-2

biplane, I-15Bis, I-153 Chaika and an I-16

Rata), as well as a, Yak-3, Mig-3, Bell P-63,

Lavochkin La-9 - most of which are original,

several having been recovered from various

swamps and forests in the former Soviet

Union and refurbished by a New Zealand

company). Rounding out the collection was a

DeHavilland Mosquito and a P-40E, both

10

which have performed at Reading PA), a P-

51D, a North American P-64 replica (based

on an AT-6 Texan/SNJ airframe), a B-25J,

an FM-2 Wildcat, another Goodyear product

in the form of am FG-1D Corsair, a

Skyraider in 1950s Glossy Sea Blue

camouflage and markings; and a host of

others. Other aircraft were hiding in various

hangars, some under restoration or

construction, including another Fokker Dr.1,

a DH-89 Dragon Rapide, an original Curtiss

Jenny, and more. You did not know where to

look next. One wild looking bird was an Fw-

190A replica in silver dope Luftwaffe finish,

sporting a 4-bladed prop! A docent explained

that the ersatz Fw was equipped with a

Czech-built engine (thus the 4-bladed prop)

as well as, a totally “liquid” instrument panel

– no gauges. They also have an original V.1

pulse jet engine, mounted to a test stand

complete with fuel supply, but they did not

demo it at the show.

They did demonstrate a “‘real” WWI radial

on an engine stand, with the radial engine

itself spinning around with the prop. There

were re-enactors in period costume,

including my friend, Lynn Ritger, resident

Bf-109 and Luftwaffe experten, who often

lurks on Hyperscale. The museum has a

couple of vintage vehicles, too, including a

Ford Model T with a Hucks Starter, used to

spin prop blades to get the engines going in

the days before internal engine starters.

Even the museum’s set of buildings included

some museum pieces, the most notable of

which are a WWII era control tower, of a

type seen on most airfields in England, and

the start of this example (wait for it, Marc

Rocca) an original Luftwaffe wooden hangar

that they dismantled piece by piece and

erected down at the far end of the field. They

even maintained the original graffiti on the

structure’s beams (in Polish, I might add)

written by the conscripted slave laborers who

originally built the hangar. They usually

keep the WWI aircraft in there.

There was a crew from “The Hangardeck

Podcast” there, with very professional

equipment, interviewing people at the show,

including me. I told them that guy they

should really interview was not me, but none

other than our local NJIPMS resident hero,

and my friend for close to 40 years, Buzz

Lockwood, which they did, th

ankfully, at length. By the time of our

October meeting, or shortly thereafter,

Buzz’s interview should be up and available.

I would strongly encourage every NJIPMS

member to check back at the podcast’s

website www.thehangardeck.com from time

to time to hear this interview. And here’s

why….

The NJIPMS attendees, and friends of

NJIPMS, were treated to a very personal and

11

intimate version of Buzz’s story on Friday

night at the club’s usual convention get-

together, this time held in Big Bill’s hotel

room at the Schooner. It was a real privilege

to hear Buzz’s stories about his service as a

Loach and Cobra Gunship pilot during the

Vietnam War in that intimate setting. It

wasn’t long before he started to direct “his

message” toward the young teenagers in the

room – namely Bills’ protégé (aka as

‘boy”and his friend, Mike). Say want you

want about the short attention span of most

of today’s youth, these two young guys were

transfixed, listening to both the specific

stories and the philosophical message

inherent in what Buzz was saying. They

hardly moved a muscle; and the same could

be said of the adults in that room. Now, I

have heard quite a few of his stories over the

years, especially during our long trips

together traveling to the meetings, and

during our dinners before the meeting, but it

was quite something to witness that whole

group hearing it at the same time. Buzz does

not often share these stories, even with guys

he’s been friends with for years. He took

great pains to say he did not consider himself

a hero, perse, but simply stated that he and

others just did what they had to do when the

time came. Looking from outside those acts

more resemble the tribute that Admiral

Chester Nimitz made about Marines in

combat in Iwo Jima, namely that

“uncommon valor was a common virtue”. He

then went around the room, singling out Pat

O’Connor’s service as a Volunteer Fire

Fighter, stating that every time Pat goes out

on a call, he puts life and limb on the line. I

really identified with that, since my eldest

brother, Dan, is a Newark Fire Department

vet, now thankfully, retired. Kudos to you

Pat - thank you for your service, too. Big

Bill made sure to underscore that those two

teens understand the meaning of what they

heard that night. I think they did. I think

they’ll remember it for years to come.

Don’t get the wrong impression, though. This

get-together in the hotel room was not just a

solemn occasion. We had a blast telling dirty

jokes, talking about aviation, models, movies

and just about everything else under the

sun. That’s one of the other best things about

going to these shows. The beer flowed freely,

spiked with tequila sipping shots for Big Bill,

the Birthday Boy. We got so loud and

raucous, that the hotel manager came up to

warn us about the noise level, namely that if

they received one more complaint, we would

be thrown out of the hotel! When I was back

in college, if the cops didn’t show up at our

fraternity parties, we didn’t consider it a

good party – same here. And while I’ve been

to dozens of hospitality suite confabs at

shows over the years, this was truly one for

the history books.

The other thing about VAB is the constant

12

free airshow (especially F-18 Hornets and E2

Hawkeyes) that goes on day and night over

the beach, courtesy of NAS Oceana, the USN

Amphib Base at Little Creek and the nearby

Norfolk, VA, USN base. Most of us stayed at

the Schooner Hotel at the southern end near

the inlet. Pairs of Navy Seal boats roared in

and out of the inlet. Ospreys thundered past

our balconies. Seahawks hovered and, one

morning, the nuclear powered carrier the

USS George Washington sortied out of

Norfolk in the distance (later I found out the

intent was to have her positioned offshore in

the event that her power plant was needed

for emergency service providing power to any

Hurricane Matthew ravaged coastal city).

Thanks also goes to Big Bill for organizing

the dinners and other attractions the club

members and friends of the club went to. Bill

was stationed at Oceana late in his career

and knows VAB like the back of his hand.

The next club outing is the Maraudercon

Show in Harve de Grace in Maryland. Buzz

and I will be trucking down together from

the Keystone State. This venue is a short

trip from all points in Jersey, so if you want

to be part of the fun with Big Bill as the

Ringleader, be there, or be square.

For more of Mike’s photos, visit the website:

http://njipms.org/?page_id=3329

From the Editor By Devin Poore

Apologies to everyone for the lack of photos

from last month’s meeting. I wasn’t able to

attend, and don’t believe anyone showed up

with a camera. Fortunately Mike T., Mike D.

gave us some good photos for their respective

articles. Also, Ricardo von Puttkammer sent

in some photos from the airshow portion of

the Region 2 event, which I’ve included.

As Big Bill stated above, we’re still looking

for someone to take over the newsletter. I

can continue to update the website, as that

isn’t much of a time drain on me. The

newsletter, however, does take a fair bit of

time between reminding the board of due

dates, formatting their articles, and

formatting the reviews and such. I can

continue on the newsletter through next

month, and maybe the January issue, due to

time off for the holidays, but I really need

someone to take over by February. At that

point my time will be almost completely

devoted to model building for work, and

writing during whatever free time I have left

over.

Speaking of the job, it is indeed even more

amazing that I’d hope it’d be. We’re past the

stage where I can share photos, due to

business confidentiality, but I’ll be at the

meeting this coming Friday and will be

happy to talk with anyone about the painting

I’m doing and the new tools of the trade I’m

learning (3D CAD work, 3D printing, laser

etching, etc.)

Finally, as part of work, I’ve begun to use the

Badger Stynylrez polyurethane primer. It’s

truly amazing stuff, right up there with Mr.

Surfacer, but water clean-up. Definitely give

it a look.

~Devin

13

14

15

Newsletter Editor can be contacted at:

me “at” devinjpoore.com

This month’s meeting will be on:

Friday November 11th, 2016